Wonder Woman's True Age Explained by Director Patty Jenkins

Director Patty Jenkins has offered her thoughts on exactly how old Wonder Woman herself, Diana (Gal Gadot) truly is, in the DC Extended Universe. When Gadot debuted Diana Prince in last year's Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, she seemed every bit like an average person, at a passing glance. That's not the case, of course, and the character's solo film explores the real story of she came to be - though not every question was answered, including that concerning her real age.

Throughout the scenes set on Themyscria, Wonder Woman shows Diana's growth in three stages - a young kid, a teen, and a woman. However, the film passes over quantifying the amount of time that has passed, over the course of that montage. For Jenkins however, Diana's exact age didn't really matter because, no matter what, the movie was meant to serve as Diana's "coming of age story."

Speaking in an interview with Collider however, Jenkins did offer an estimation for how old Diana really is:

"Well, I think she's thousands of years old. Really, I think she's a child but she's probably 800 [years old]."

From being sheltered and a bit of naive to the harsh world of men, Diana bravely comes out of her shell and realizes her sense of purpose in the Wonder Woman film - which is exactly what Jenkins really wanted to highlight in her origins story, more than anything else (like her age):

"Oh my God, have I had that conversation. Ad nauseam. Because the truth was I kept talking about listen, this is her coming of age story. How is she coming of age and how long does that take to learn these lessons. Well, it would take a long time but also we don't know how long it took to get to that moment that she finally does the energy blast and then Steve arrives. That might have taken that whole time or the middle stage might've taken longer and she's been fighting for a decent amount of time. It's like you stretch out that time period to her living for a long time and that's her aging."

Gal Gadot, Patty Jenkins and Lucy Davis on the Wonder Woman set

Given the reveal that Diana is, in fact, Zeus's daughter instead of just the princess of Themyscira, the implication is that she is essentially immortal - or failing that, ages really, really slowly. Her half-brother Ares, who we eventually learn is Sir Patrick Morgan (David Thewlis) in disguise, has lived considerably longer than Wonder Woman and he looks older than her, too. That suggests that Diana will also continue to go through some physical aging, as more and more time goes by.

Regardless of Diana's exact age, the implication that she is already hundreds of years in her solo movie opens up a lot of storytelling opportunities for the character. This also offers DC and Warner Bros the option to create a detached Wonder Woman film from the rest of the DCEU, as the studio can go back years and years to explore more of her life before we met her in Dawn of Justice.

Jenkins has already teased about the possibility of a Wonder Woman 2 set in the present, presumably following her experiences after her interaction with the other metahumans of the DCEU. While fans will have to wait a bit longer to see another solo movie featuring the Amazonian princess, she will be back on the big screen this November, as part of the ensemble for Justice League.